Fab Frugal Mama

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Readying Our Garden With Help From Canadian Tire {#cbias #SocialFabric}

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I’m no green thumb, but every spring since my kids were little we have planted flowers together; it has become a really nice tradition. Mind you, I’d never attempt splitting a hosta or planting something big, like a tree. After four years of practice, though, I think I’m comfortable enough to plant annuals in pots or a small patch of my garden, without worrying that they’ll wither and die!

This past weekend, my daughter and I visited Canadian Tire to choose some lovelies for our front garden. Usually the kids and I plant annuals in pots on our back deck, but last year we removed some old plantings in our front garden so we figured the front needed a bit of love this year. 🙂

 

I’m not much of a planner when it comes to the garden – I’m a visual kinda girl, so whatever catches my eye and suits the garden conditions (i.e. full sun, good soil drainage, etc) is what we bring home. Luckily, despite it being early in the season, Canadian Tire had a good selection of beautiful blooms at reasonable prices.

 

My daughter had very specific “likes”… she continually pointed out her favourite flowers to me, but was disappointed when I explained that we couldn’t put partial shade flowers in a full sun environment.

Too bad… the card reads “Part Shade” 🙁

There were so many options available to us – including hanging pots (hubby said the hooks on our porch overhang wouldn’t support them; supposedly, they are only for Christmas lights) and ready-made planters – that it got a bit overwhelming for me, the non-gardener.

 

My daughter thought I was taking WAY too long deciding on what flowers to buy, so she went exploring the rest of the garden centre, where she found every kind of tool, fertilizer and seed you’d ever want, as well as some tiki statues and garden gnomes with attitude (she wanted to take one home!).

   

    
Garden gnomes with attitude!

Once I got focused again, I realized I needed some help. Luckily, a very friendly associate named Linda was there to assist us. I told her which kind of flowers we usually plant – New Guinea Impatiens – and that whatever goes in our garden needs to be hardy and able to bounce back from a few days without water. (I’m not the best at remembering to water the garden every day.) We wanted to get something different from “the usual”, so she helped us decide on some beautiful plants that caught my eye almost the minute we entered the garden center – Regal Geraniums.

 

We couldn’t decide on which colour we loved the best, so we chose two complementary varieties. In total, we purchased six plants to fill our 8-foot strip of front garden. While loading up the car, my daughter was delighted to find a ladybug on her window, which she promptly befriended!
   
When we arrived home, we got to work. It was a lovely day, but the forecast called for rain later in the afternoon and we wanted to finish our project before the downpour.

We prepped the garden by turning over the soil and removing any weeds that were growing in there. Then, we set out the plants to determine the best spots for them.

Removing weeds
Setting the plants in position

Next came the fun part! I did most of the digging because we have two existing hosta plants I had to be careful not to disrupt, but my kids took turns watering the holes and scooping a bit of bone meal into each one. The rest went pretty quickly… loosening the plants in their containers, gently pulling them out and placing them in the prepped holes, then packing the dirt gently around the base of the plants. The final step was a nice, gentle drink of water for each of the plants.

Adding a bit of bone meal to each hole
Watering the hole
Watering the newly-planted flowers

I think our garden turned out really well – check out the “before and after” pictures, below.

The plants are beautiful and, hopefully, they will stand up to the hot, humid summer to come! Despite not being a great gardener, I feel like each time I plant something I gain a bit of confidence.

If you’d like to see more images of my shopping trip, check out my Google+ album.

Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® #cbias #SocialFabric


 

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    Hello There! I own a Garden Centre consulting company called Living Logistics Limited and am working with a few Canadian Tire stores in the GTA including the one you visited in Scarborough. We are working very hard to bring you an expansive and exciting variety of beautiful quality plants in to our Canadian Tire Garden Centres. I would like to thank you for the kind words and hope you and your family enjoy the Regal Geraniums purchased.

    If you ever have any requests for plants you would like to see in the store, please feel free to mention them to staff. I am in to the store regularly and will do my best to meet the needs of the area. We will be having a Gardener's Night this Spring where you can come in for information, draws for products and to meet some of the growers of your favorite plants. Thank you again and Happy Gardening!
    Monika Serabian

  3. Cyn says

    It sounds like your garden is going to be really lovely! I really adore those garden gnomes with attitude.

  8. NPC says

    LOOOOVE the plants and you did very well. Great shop and story! I always go to Canadian Tire for plants and essentials too. 🙂 I'm not much of a green thumb either but, I try!

  11. Fab Frugal Mama says

    I'm with you… I love perennials! But, I like that I can plant a small part of my garden with annuals so that if I don't like them, I can try a new look the next year. 🙂

  14. Fab Frugal Mama says

    Thanks, Nancy! 🙂 Glad you like them! I think they're so pretty – I love trying new looks in my garden and these are one of my faves so far. Let's see how they fare this summer…I hope I don't kill them! LOL